We, the undersigned, write as representatives of UK-based civil society organisations that work, in many different ways, to reduce the risk of mass atrocities worldwide. In somber reflection on the seventy years that have passed since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention, we write with regards to UK contributions to the growing challenge of atrocity prevention.

Somalia has experienced civil war for almost 30 years, and with over 70 per cent of its population is under 30 years of age, youth and youth education appear to be the key to a peaceful future in the country.

Mali is facing an escalating violent conflict that has spread from the peripheral Sahel regions in the far northwest to the centre of the country. In 2018, the country is faced with a situation where violence is more intense and widespread than during the widely publicised 2012–2013 crisis.

Mali is not experiencing a civil war in the conventional sense but a complex, multidimensional security crisis of interlinked micro-conflicts.